Bloodstained Hearts
by Chibi-Zion
Summary: A rather dark tale about the death of Kim Possible. Rated M for mature themes, language and violence. Chapter 3 is now available.
1. Honor for the Fallen

Disclaimer: Kim Possible, and all associated characters are property of Disney. I don't own them, and if I did Kigo would be canon. Anyways, this story is rated 'M' for the mature content within, namely themes involving death, suicide, violence, swearing, and (later) sexual content. So no griping about it. I warned you, and you read it…so you made the choice on your own.

This is a one-time disclaimer that applies for the whole story.

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"Shego!"

It came much too loud and too early in the morning for the pale-green skinned woman as she sat at the small kitchen table of Drakken's latest lair, hidden just off the coast, a glass of orange juice in one hand, the other rubbing a throbbing temple. Last night had involved far too much alcohol. The annual tradition of drinking on her birthday was usually was followed by the annual hangover from hell.

"Drakken…" Her glare from beneath her tangled hair froze the cerulean scientist in his tracks, "Shut. Up. I've got a giant hangover right now, and I can't hold myself responsible for any possible disemboweling that may occur because of it."

"But Shego-" His whine was cut off as he noticed a glowing talon-like finger raised at him. "Oh real mature Shego! But I'll have you know that our problem with Kim Possible is finally over."

Shego rolled her eyes as she sipped her juice, mentally preparing to ignore the scientist's ramblings of whatever mechanical monstrosity that he'd come up with now.

"Kim Possible is…_missing_! Most likely dead!" He slapped the newspaper he had been holding onto the table, an unusually small hand pointing at the headline. "She's gone!" He started to dance poorly around the kitchen, chanting "No more Kim Poss-i-ble! No more Kim Poss-i-ble!"

Shego began coughing, choking on her orange juice. No more Kim? Was Drakken joking? She quickly snatched the paper, and began skimming the article.

Kim Possible…Shego skimmed ahead…missing…more skimming…after going on a mission in Germany….more skimming…..gone over a month…skimming again…presumed dead.

Shego stopped as she slowly read the sentence again.

Kim Possible…presumed dead. The words seemed casually pieced together, almost as if it wasn't understood how powerful they really were.

Kim Possible was...dead.

The same Kim Possible who had managed to match or surpass her every time they fought? The same Kim Possible who had survived a trip through a giant cookie mixer? The same Kim Possible who had helped her and her idiot brothers defeat Aviarius?

Was it really the same girl?

Her body stood automatically, her legs shuffling away from Drakken and his private celebration. She felt nauseous, her body completely numb with each of her limbs weighing a hundred pounds. The girl she'd dedicated almost four years of her life trying to one-up…was gone. No warning, just gone.

It felt like she'd lost her reason to be.

There was no more redheaded perfectionist to taunt. No more girl who could make her want to strive to be better. No one who understood the person Shego was under her emotional armor.

She didn't remember climbing into bed, wrapping herself in her dark green sheets, or Dr. Drakken coming to check on her several times that day. She wrapped herself in the cocoon of bedding and eventually drifted off into a restless sleep.

It was several days before she left her room, and her first trip out led her to the bathroom, but no further before she returned to her room, the sounds of cursing and struggling with a stuck door heard before the sound of splintered wood was heard from behind her closed door. Shego exited a short while later wearing one of her many cat suits, a small travel bag over one shoulder.

The hangar was a short trip from her room to the hangar where her plane rested. The experimental aircraft she'd stolen was one of a kind, repainted matte black with emerald flames. She preformed a quick pre-flight check before climbing it, stowing her bag behind her seat. The was no need to taxi the plane as the twin jet engine turbines worked up to operational speed the body trembling almost in excitement. A little push of the joystick and a small adjust of the throttle and she was off the ground and quickly leaving the hangar behind.

The aircraft quickly cleared the small hangar and began gaining altitude, pushing its way towards the clouds overhead, then in the blink of an emerald-colored eye later, passed them. Up here she could feel the problems that she faced down below stripping away with each the craft climbed. The hidden glances, the lusty stares, the hushed whispers. All of it was shed from her layer by layer, until she was bare from it all. There was no feeling like it.

Or no feeling like it anymore a small voice reminded her. The pain of loss seizing her chest, the pain coursing through it as the thought rippled through her mind, bringing with it more thoughts, each more confusing to her as the one before it.

When had she started caring about the teenager so much? When had she let the redhead get so far under her skin?

When had she gotten so weak?

She forced herself to blink several times, forcing tears away. She couldn't cry. Not now. Not ever. She was stronger than that.

She was sure of it.

She had to be stronger than that.

The pale woman sighed as she silently reminded herself why she was going to Kim's last known location. It was just closure. She had to know that the girl was truly gone. She couldn't accept that the redhead was dead until then.

She coaxed the plane to travel faster; the body trembling as it approached the threshold of sound. Then the trembling stopped. It wasn't often that she pushed her baby this hard, and she'd never tried to push the jet to go harder. She slowly kept adjusting the throttle, her airspeed increasing as she pushed the aircraft's limits.

Even flying at the plane's top speed the flight took several hours, and the pale woman had to begin to slow the aircraft as she approached German airspace. She swallowed as she steeled herself what she might find in the country below.

It hadn't taken long to get into the country and even less time to find the Blackwood where the article had said Kim last was. The plan touched down in a small clearing gently, the engines whining softly as they shut down. Grabbing her bag, she left the plane, locking the canopy shut behind her and walked into the wood line. The further she went, the more she noticed shadows darting in the trees around her. The knot in her stomach told that she was getting close. The suspicion in the back of her mind told her that the shadows around her would keep her from getting there. She stopped, letting the bag slid from her shoulder and down her arm, landing with a small thump on the ground. The air rippled slightly as she ignited her hands, the glow casting a strong light out into the shaded wood.

"Alright, who's out there? I'm not in the mood for playing games today. So get out here, so we can get this over with." Some of the shadows shifted slightly as she spoke, but none of them approached. "Come on now, you little bastards. I don't have all day!" The last word came out almost as a growl as she twisted and throwing a ball of energy into a tree, the wood exploding into a shower of splinters from the impact. "Now I didn't put any heat on that one, but if no one is out here by the time I count to ten someone is going to the burn ward. And it isn't to visit some poor orphans." The glow grew larger around her hands, covering her wrists and lapping at her forearms, the air rippling from the heat as oxygen was consumed violently by the superheated plasma.

"One…Two…Thr-"

"Relax Miss Go." A calm voice interrupted the pale woman who turned to face the speaker.

The speaker surprised the glow wielding woman as she saw a woman. The woman before Shego was slender, her brown hair cut short, barely longer than her ears. A dyke haircut Shego mused as she toned down her glow, taking note of the woman's eye patch and blue jump suit. The woman's combat boots convinced Shego that she was looking at something out of a B movie.

"What happened? You just get out of some bad lesbian science fiction movie production?" Shego scaled back the energy further so that there was nothing more than a whisper around the ends of the talon-tipped fingers of her gloves.

"Not quite Miss Go, you see my name is Doctor Betty Director, and the people you were just threatening are some of my agents. I'm sure you've heard of Global Justice?"

The pale woman snorted and crossed her arms, the glow completely extinguished now, "So what does the supreme-leader of the Goody-Good Patrol want with me?"

Betty walked closer, so that she was only a few feet from Shego, "Nothing. Well, at least nothing right now. I know your record fairly well, but that isn't why we're here. My agents and I have been trying to find Miss Possible since her initial disappearance in these woods almost a month ago. I'm sure you're here because of that press release that was made earlier this week, correct?"

Shego nodded slowly, not feeling comfortable with where the conversation was leading. She repressed the feeling, deciding to wait and see where the conversation actually lead before acting.

"Today my organization is pulling out. From what we found, well, it is very hard to believe that she is alive. There has been no sign of her however, and with the evidence we collected, we don't believe there ever will be."

The color began to fade from the woman's already pale complexion.

The one eyed woman looked towards the tree line before she spoke, "We found a single boot, a broken communication device that her partner Mr. Stoppable identified as her 'Kimmunicator' and a lot of blood Miss Go."

"Ho-How much blood?" Shego's legs were shaking now as she willed herself to stay standing.

"Enough blood Miss Go to paint my office with. I'm not entirely sure what you came here looking to find Miss Go, but I hope that I helped you find it." The woman walked passed Shego, her hands clasped behind her back.

Shego collapsed her complexion the color of chalk. Kim was gone.

It really was true, wasn't it?

Her shoulders began to shake as the tears began to well up in her eyes. The woman didn't know why she shed tears for the redhead. Maybe she respected the rival she lost. Maybe it was for a connection that they had despite being on the opposite sides of the law. Maybe it went deeper than that. Shego didn't try to find why, letting herself breakdown and collapse, sobbing softly until her eyes had no more tears.

She spent the night on the wing of her plane, staring at the night sky, not sure what to do anymore. She'd fought Kim. It was what she did. Drakken would cook up a hair-brained scheme, Kim and her buffoon sidekick would show up to stop him, and she'd fight the redhead. But what could she do now? The girl had given Shego a reason to try harder, to become stronger, to develop new skills with her powers, to become something else. Something stronger.

Kim was the first person who actually wanted to understand who Shego was. To know what drove her. To know what Shego felt, wanted, believed.

Until they that first time they first met in battle, Shego had just been a thief and a sidekick to a bumbling villain, but Kim gave her the drive to become something more.

But what was she now? It just didn't feel right to go back to her old life. Yet she didn't have anywhere else to go. Curling into a ball she tried to think, but found her thoughts not on her problem, but on Kim instead. The teenager drifted from her mind as doubt crept in.

Did she even have a purpose now that Kim was gone? She held herself tightly, eventually falling asleep without an answer.

Time passed slowly after she returned to the lair, one day blending into the next, each moment feeling like the one before it.

Drakken watched Shego's decline into depression as the weeks based, each day the woman becoming worse than she was the day before. The man wasn't the most knowledge about matters of the heart or mind, but he was sure that something was bothering the woman. "Shego? I know that sometimes we aren't very close, but I like to think of us as some kind of extended family…and well…I was wondering if you would tell me…what was bothering you." He cringed, expecting the woman to lash out at him, only relaxing when he realized that she didn't even look up at him. "Shego?"

"Why do you keep me around?"

The question startled the man causing him to flinch, ready to cover his face from any energy-induced burns he may receive. "Well…we're a family Shego! Not to mention you've pulled me out of trouble more times than I can count. I can trust you, even if you get cranky and abusive at times."

Shego seemed to be studying the kitchen table for a long moment before she said anything, "But with Kim Possible gone why would you need me to protect you? She really was all that held you back, right?"

The man pulled a chair back from the table, sighing as he slid into his seat, "Yes and no… You see in the end this was more of a large game than anything. Her father ruined my life and I had to prove to myself that I was better than he was. But his daughter… now she was more of a challenge than he could ever prove to be… and I found myself trying not to beat him, but her instead. I guess somewhere along the line I stopped caring about the world and more about outsmarting her…" He laughed nervously, "It's strange…I never noticed until now why I wanted to win so badly…"

"So….you don't need me anymore?" Shego's voice was on the verge of breaking as she spoke.

"Not anymore than I need this lair…Let's face it…I have no use for the world, and, well, I'm getting rather old to keep trying to take it over. I think retirement is a better approach. Maybe I can sell some of my inventions to the military or something." He sighed, "I'm sorry Shego…I guess we do need to go our separate ways… Do new things with our lives…move on…"

Shego didn't say anything, as Drakken stood up and slowly walked away.

Move on? What could a woman like her do now?

The man paused, and looked back at her, "They held a funeral for her today…some place called Crestview Cemetery." When he looked back towards her, she was gone.

Shego didn't remember the ride to the cemetery or how she found herself slowly walking towards the cemetery gate, a thought fighting to stay outside of the cemetery, but a louder voice telling her to go in. To find the truth that she knew was hidden somewhere inside.

After a little searching she found Kim's headstone. It was a simple design, an angel, wings spread with an arm reaching towards the sky.

"In memory of Kim Possible. A woman who never learned what was impossible really meant," Shego smiled a little as she looked at it, feeling a sense of pride for Kim, quickly followed by the familiar grip of depression. This was the memorial to the girl who'd defined her life, and propelled Drakken to try bigger and better things.

The memorial for the girl who could do anything.

Except live forever.

"Damn it Kimmie…" Shego's hand's balled up, her talon tipped fingers digging into her palms. "You just had to die young didn't you? You just couldn't say no to anyone…and now…now" Her legs buckled, dropping her to her knees, the pain welling in her eyes. "I never got to prove I was better…damn you Princess! You didn't even have the courtesy to tell me good-bye…"

Shego forced herself to stop crying, and wiped her eyes, "I might as well call it quits then too….After all…without you I've got nothing… Drakken quit trying to take over the world, and well…I don't see the point in continuing to live in a world where everybody else thinks that I'm a tool or a monster." She extended one talon like finger and bared the wrist on her other arm. It was quick and painless at first. She clenched her fist as the pain set in, the blood running free from her wrist, and onto the grass below.

The pale woman muttered curse words as she fought to stay awake. She was getting dizzy now, everything blurring together. "Good-bye Kimmie…" She slumped forward, her forehead bouncing off of the corner of Kim's headstone and landing in the grass.

Somewhere in the darkness the woman thought she heard a familiar voice as the world grew cold and dark, "Shego…What happened to the woman I knew? The woman who helped make me strong?"

A slow beep of a hear monitor was the first thing Shego heard as she tried to look around to see where she was. As her vision neared the foot of the bed she noticed an older woman in a lab coat holding a clipboard. For a moment the pale woman thought she was looking at an older Kim until she remembered that she had once met the teenager's mother. "I know you…."

The woman looked over at Shego, and sighed "We met before…you and my daughter worked together to find Drew and Ron last Christmas." She was silent for a moment, "I'm Dr. Anne Possible, and you are very lucky to be alive right now. No one knows how you got here, especially since you showed up in the lobby bleeding extensively. Now I don't know how you got that cut on your wrist…or even how you managed to get here with that much blood loss, but that doesn't matter right now. You'll be under observation for a few days then you'll be free to go."

Parts of Shego's mind felt fuzzy, as memories about the woman came back into focus, "But…aren't you a surgeon?"

"I've been known to make exceptions. Especially for people who made my daughter smile."

Shego's mind worked at this slowly, still recovering from the blood loss she'd sustained before, "I made…Kimmie happy?"

Anne nodded, "I've never heard her talk about anyone with more enthusiasm or pride. To her you were everything, a smart woman, a capable fighter, and she said you had something else that she couldn't explain. Something that she wished she could get closer to you to figure out. For Kim anything she couldn't explain right away was something more than just an interest, it was an obsession. And you're the only mystery she never solved."

Shego looked down at her own feet. She'd made Kim happy. She made the teenager smile.

She felt a small smile creep onto her face as she looked back towards the ceiling.

"Get some rest Shego…you need it while your body heals."

Shego complied meekly, rolling onto her side and closing her eyes, the hint of a memory creeping back into her mind as she slipped off to sleep.

_Was that you Princess?_

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A/N: And thus ends Chapter One of the revised version for those who read the original _Bloodstained Hearts._

Next Chapter: Shego faces a monster, and finds help in a place she never expected.


	2. Alone in the Dark

She walked slowly across the cool grass as her emerald eyes darted from tree to tree, trying figure out where she was. She couldn't see anything in the shadows only a few feet beyond the edge of the wood line. The trees looked almost as if they were painted shades of gray and blue in the darkness, but nothing looking familiar.

Where was she?

Shego stopped walking and looked down at her feet, the pale toes exposed to the world as realization came over her.

And why was she walking around barefoot in a hospital gown? She shook her head, trying to shake the feeling that something was amiss.

Somewhere overhead the moon peeked from behind the blanket of clouds, painting the forest in shades of silver, the shade of gray chased away by the light. Her emerald eyes looked around the trees, trying to see if anything looked familiar in the moonlight. Something darted in the shadows in the distance causing her to jump a little, dropping into a defensive stance. Shego shook at her own jumpiness, standing up again, letting her hands drop to her sides; it was probably nothing more than a squirrel or a rabbit.

"Alright, you got out here somehow… You're barefoot, wearing a hospital gown in the middle of the woods at night so either you've started sleepwalking or you're going nuts….and… I'm talking to myself…." Shego sighed, shaking her head. "Let's figure out how to get back…" She turned slowly, trying to find a fire break a path through the trees, grumbling as she realized that nothing looked remotely familiar.

"Fuck."

The moonlight faded slowly as the clouds drifted back over the moon, casting the woods back into dark shades of gray and blue.

It wouldn't stay dark for long, she thought as she raised one hand, mentally commanding her glow to appear.

Then nothing happened.

"FUCK!"

She concentrated, searching for the familiar feeling of her glow, urging herself to produce a spark. A sizzle. Something.

"FUCK. FUCK. FUCK!" She fought off the panic that was beginning to seize her chest in its cold grip. First Kim, now her glow. Was there a reason she was losing everything? Some kind of method to the madness of universe?

She inhaled deeply, breathing out slowly, trying to clear her head. She needed to worry about getting out of the woods first and her failed powers later. Picking a direction she started off, hoping it'd lead out of the woods.

Shego walked for several hours, every mile blending with the next, until she was convinced that she was walking in a large circle, everything looking so much in the darkness.

Shego stopped near a tree that she was positive that she'd passed before, and faced it. With a quick slash she attacked the tree, cursing as her fingers bashed against the tough bark. She pulled her hand back, checking her throbbing fingertips. Her mouth hung open as she realized her talon like nails that she'd had were gone leaving regular soft tipped fingers.

What was going on?

She twirled as a twig snapped behind her, her left foot coming down on a pine cone. She winced as she shifted her footing, kicking the pine cone away from her, it bouncing off into a shrub behind her. The brush on her right shifted, as something moved passed it. Shego adjusted, her body sinking into a little as it assumed a stance that it knew by memory, hands at her sides, fingers tightening, tips digging into her palms.

The short hairs on her neck stood on end as she turned around slowly.

Something was out there.

A pine cone came bouncing towards her, gently bumping against her foot. Shego twisted towards its sourced only to see a blur of green and black climbing up a tree.

Something about the blur looked familiar.

"Quit fucking with me! You think that this is some sort of game?"

A high-pitched giggle echoed above her moments before a flash of green moved from the tree she was facing to another one, disappearing into the branches above.

"Come down here!" Her heart was starting to pound as she tried to focus. She was strong enough to fight Kim. Some nut in a tree was nothing. She breathed deep and slow, her heartbeat slowing.

Overhead a small green light flickered into existence, growing brighter, shadows of the leaves cast in every direction.

The light looked familiar...

She didn't get time to remember before the tree exploded. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion as the leaves, some burning as they fell around her, small pieces of wood and bark falling like hair. She didn't see the movement in the explosion, a sharp pain coursed through her jaw, as her body turned like a top before dropping her flat on her stomach.

She recognized the boot that sat in front of her face before it pulled back moments before connecting with her side. Shego rolled twice from the blow before stopping. The pale woman started to pick herself up, a warm trickle of blood running down her cheek flowing from her bottom lip. "Alright you bitch…I don't know where you got an outfit like mine…but…" Shego's voice died in her throat as she saw a familiar face looking down at her.

Slowly the pieces began falling into place.

The woman's figure resembled a skeleton, with a tattered green and black suit almost draped over her form. Black orbs peered from beneath the tangled mess of black hair a thin smile filled with needle-like teeth was wrapped in two thin black lips that rested between her sunken cheeks.

The woman looked a lot like her on a bad day.

The last piece fell into place as Shego's eyes met the woman's black orbs.

She swallowed as she realized why her powers weren't working anymore.

The woman she was staring at _was _her powers.

Shego aimed low, aiming at the woman's midsection, but the woman was faster, her thin body twisting out of the way of Shego's fist, seconds before swinging a glowing fist at the pale woman's stomach.

The fist stopped short, the green flame lapping at the hospital gown, slowly burning a hole in it as Shego tightened fingers around the other woman's forearm.

"Gotcha bitch."

Shego pulled her hand back to strike again, but froze as the arm she was holding exploded into green fire. The pain tore through her body starting in her palm and working up her arm and into her spine. The pain spread through her body until her whole body felt like it was burning with her hand.

She couldn't hear herself scream, but the dry cracking in her throat told her body dropping to her knees unable to let go, the other woman leaning in close to her. Tenderly their lips met before the woman's entire body was enclosed in green fire. The pain disappeared slowly as a memory slowly drifted into her mind.

She could see it in her mind, the entire scene playing like a movie. The tree house in her grandparent's house taking shape first, as she remembered reading a book while her bothers pretended super heroes nearby.

She remembered looking up from her book as something began to whistle loudly overhead, the sky growing dark. Time itself seemed to slow before the tree house exploded. She remembered the feeling of falling as thousands of splinters of wood fell around her, spinning like leaves, everything moving in slow motion. Then came the feeling of warmth as she began to get warmer, sweat pouring from every pore in her body.

Her ribs popped as she hit the ground, the pain lost in the burning sensation that was growing stronger with each slowly passing moment. She struggled to stand, her body continuing to grow hotter, her muscles starting to stretch and tear as she strained to lift herself up.

Fire came from every part of at once, bursting from every pore in her body, green flames engulfing her as she drifted into unconsciousness.

The memory in Shego's mind slowed and stopped, fading away into darkness, as her body going limp, her body growing heavier by the moment, her form only suspended by the arm she couldn't release.

It was the same sort of pain she'd felt on the day she'd been given the power of her glow, every nerve screaming in pain as her body began to smoke and sweat.

And now it was happening again. Her head fell back, her eyes trying to focus on the sky above. And slowly, like the sky above everything turned to black.

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Her head was throbbing as her eyes opened into a room of blurred light and color. Her hand went to her temple, rubbing it gently as she closed her eyes. She just needed to relax and the pain would go away.

Her rubbing slowed as she realized that something seemed different. Shego opened her eyes as she lifted her hand and looked at it. Each slender finger ended with talon like nails. She stared at the unmarred hand in surprise. Why wasn't it burned? Hadn't it been the hand that was in the glow? Faint phantoms of memory danced in her mind with each throbbing pulse pounded through her head.

She looked at it, before slowly lowering it back onto the bed.

What was going on?

The door to the room opened, and then closed with a soft click, a pair of hard sole shoes walking towards her. "Oh…you're finally awake…"

Shego turned her head towards the redheaded surgeon her eyebrows knit together in confusion, "What do you mean…finally?" Her vision fell on the woman's left arm, which hung in a sling. "Wait. What happened to your arm?"

"Well… after you went to sleep you started tossing and turning like you were having nightmare. When I tried to wake you up, I was thrown into the wall, which is when I dislocated my shoulder. We had to heavily sedate you to get you to calm down." The surgeon looked embarrassed as she spoke sitting down on the foot of her patient's bed. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Shego slid to a sitting position to give the older woman a little more room, not taking her eyes off of her own feet, "Talk about what?"

"What your dream was about."

Shego didn't say anything for a moment, shifting her gaze from her feet to the wall, avoiding the woman's eyes. "I…I don't remember…"

"You're lying."

"I am not!" Shego looked hurt by the woman's accusation.

"You mumble when you lie. Kim used to do that when she lied too." The woman smiled for a moment before the memory of her lost daughter clouded her face. She sniffled a little, trying to look professional. "Sorry about that…I don't mean to be so emotional…" She used her good hand to dry her eyes with her lab coat.

Shego chewed her lip, "I was burning…."

The older woman looked up at Shego, surprise written on her face.

"When I was little my brothers and I were up in a tree house at our grandparent's house outside of Go City. They were pretending to be superheroes like usual and I was reading a book… I think it was _Frankenstein_, I read that book a lot when I was little. Anyways, I remember hearing something that sounded a lot like thunder, or a jet in the distance, but I couldn't see anything."

"Then everything got dark... The tree house exploded, and I remember falling, everything slowing down to a crawl, fragments of wood everywhere. Then everything started to hurt. My skin was so hot, but it was coming from the inside. It felt like fire was coursing through my body, igniting every nerve. When I hit the ground I could hear my ribs break, but I couldn't feel it. I was sweating steam as I tried to stand."

Shego's eyes were welling up with tears as she struggled to continue, "The…then all I remember is green fire, my entire body began burning…I…I don't know what happened after that but I can still remember it… My dream was that memory replaying itself."

The surgeon was too stunned to speak, staring at the pale-emerald woman. She leaned over and hugged the trembling woman, her good arm wrapped around the shaking form. "It's okay….it's okay…Shhhhh…"

Shego hugged the woman back, holding her close, as tears ran down her face. She wasn't burning anymore. She couldn't burn anymore. The tears stopped slowly as she relaxed her grip loosening before she let go completely. She weakly smiled at the older woman, "Sorry Doc…."

The older woman smiled, "Call me Anne, Doc sounds like something out of a cartoon… So…Feel better?" She stood, slowly and straightened her lab coat.

Shego nodded slowly, feeling a little surprised that she did.

The older woman walked towards the door slowly, "Good. I'll be back later with your discharge paperwork, so we can get you out of here."

"Wait…I thought you said I'd be here for a few days."

Anne looked back from the open door, a small smirk on her face, "That's how long you were asleep."

Shego lay in bed staring at the hand that her mind said should be burned. "Only a dream, huh?" She sighed and let the hand fall back onto the bed.

After a little while she slid out of the bed and walked over to the window, wincing at the tight pull of her calf muscles. Slowly she opened the curtains, wincing at the sunlight that streamed through the window. Leaning against the window sill, basking in the warm sunlight she looked out into the small courtyard below.

"You're…um…backdoor is open…" The door closed with a soft click.

Shego quickly pulled the hospital gown closed in the back, turning around to keep her backside hidden. "Er…Anne…Sorry about that…" Her normally pale skin darkened as she began to blush.

The older woman smirked, looking remarkably like her daughter, "It's alright, I've seen worse as a medical student. I like the tattoo though."

Shego's light complexion deepened to an even darker green as she looked towards the bed, avoiding the woman's gaze.

"So do you have anywhere to go tonight\?"

Shego looked at Anne in surprise, "Pardon?"

"Well my sons are at a science camp and my husband is currently working on s new rocket prototype so he won't be home for the rest of the week. So that means I'll be eating dinner alone. That is… unless you want to join me."

"Depends…"

"On?"

Shego looked at ceiling, "If I can get some pants."

Anne smiled, "Hospital scrubs okay?"

She crossed her arms, "Got anything in green?"

"I'll see what I can do. But you got to tell me about that tattoo."

"Deal."

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Anne set her fork down, "So let me get this straight…you and Kim were trapped inside of a collapsed tunnel after Drew's machine exploded?"

"Sadly it's been a recurring theme while I worked under him. You think he'd learn not to have a self-destruct button on everything, the toaster, the shower, the coffee pot, the toilet, but then again he did lack common sense… Anyways… So we're trapped in this tunnel, and Kim thinks she can find a way out. Well I bet she couldn't….well after going back and forth we settled on the idea of tattoos. Long story short is she found a way out, but as we were climbing up, it collapsed, burying us in marshmallow bunnies. After her buffoon sidekick managed to find us I honored my end of the bet seeing as she did find a way out, even if it did collapse."

Anne nodded, taking a bite of wrinkled pink meat that she'd dipped in ketchup.

"I've been meaning to ask you something …What is this stuff?" She poked at a slice of wrinkled pink meat with her fork, her face a mixture of interest and disgust.

"Brain Loaf. Don't worry, it's not undercooked, I color the hamburger with food coloring."

"Oh…" Shego set the fork down, not sure that she wanted to eat it now that she knew what it was.

Anne smirked, before starting to laugh, "That's the same face Kim made. It's amazing how much you act alike."

Shego sighed, "You're not the first person to say that. We weren't that much alike though she was a hero, one of the best I've ever seen, and I'm nothing more than a super-powered pickpocket. A fallen hero. I could never be the hero she was…I'm not that strong." She looked distracted as she spoke, her eyes fixed on the slice of pink on her plate.

"Bullshit."

Shego's attention snapped into focus as she looked up at the woman across from her, "What?"

"Bullshit. I really only know a little bit about you, but I think you have the strength in you, you just need to realize it." Anne put her hand down on Shego's as she spoke.

"I'm sorry…but I guess I'm just not hungry…" Shego pulled her hand away as her chair slid back, before she walked away from the table. The woman padded through the living room following the different pictures on the wall, some of the whole family, some of Kim's younger brothers, and some of just Kim herself. Shego sighed as she followed the photographs up the stairs looking at the redhead growing up, even a few pictures of her awkward years. Shego sighed as she saw the girl with braces.

There was so much she had never known about the teenager. So many things she wanted to know.

Shego kept following the pictures, trying to clear her head of what Anne said. She stopped as she found a smaller set of stairs that led higher still and found a small room with a lot of pink, lit by the a streetlight outside. Shego sighed as she looked around the space. The room had a familiar feeling to it. It felt like…Kim.

She walked slowly over to the bed and sat down on the foot of it with a small thump. This room was the accumulation of what Kim was. She had made it into what she was. A teenager, a cheerleader, a hero…a woman. She leaned back with a forced sigh, staring at the ceiling, not sure what to do. She didn't feel like stealing for a living anymore. She used to do it for fun as much as the money until she met Kim. Then it was just a way to facing the girl.

The blood pumping through her veins so loud that it thundered in her ears. The sweat running down her body. The stretching fabric of her cat suit. The volume of everything had no match to that feeling. What she would give to have that feeling again. The feeling of purpose, of need, of…. Slowly she slid her hands behind her head, pausing as her arm brushed against something next to her on the bed, her thoughts scattering.

She grabbed it and held it up, a little surprised at the oddness of the stuffed animal. She held the animal close, studying it, pausing as she noticed that it smelled familiar. She held it closer, wrapping her arms tightly around it, lost in the euphoria of the scent.

Kim…. Her mind faded out of consciousness as she fell into a peaceful sleep, body curled up on the teenager's old bed, a small smile parting her lips every so gently.

She didn't even twitch when Anne came and tucked her in later that night.

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A/N: Not much to say. Next chapter coming out as soon as I can finish it!

Next Chapter: Shego strikes up a deal and finds a home, and has to deal with an unexpected guest, as well as a couple of house warmers.


	3. Unexpected Company

She rubbed her jaw as her fingers danced over the keyboard, almost in a blur as she put the finishing touches on her weekly report. Silently she hoped that the report would help push for the larger budget Global Justice needed. Everywhere her agency was stretched thin, trying to control the problems that had once been handled by a private party.

The woman shook hear head as she thought of the young teenager who had gladly given her life to help others. The girl who asked for favors instead of money. She needed that girl back. Kim…

She rubbed her temples, trying to clear her mind. There was no brining Kim back. No body to find, no way to even honor a person as great as her. She pushed the regret aside, stuffing it away with her pain, anger, sorrow and guilt into the back of her mind and locking it tightly away. There would be no mourning for the dead. It would do her no good.

The earpiece on her desk crackled as someone began speaking; quickly she slipped it on, adjusting the thin microphone to its place next to her lips.

"-repeat, we have…intruder. Female. Light skin, green and…suit. She's heading toward-" The voice went silent with a gurgle, the sound of a body hitting the ground echoing over the earpiece before silence spread over the radio.

Another voice picked up on the radios, "Intruder spotted. God…fast. Can't seem to pin her down….Oh god…no…no-" The voice was cut off mid-cry by the sound of a body impacting something hard.

Betty slid open a drawer on her left with one hand, pulling a matte black .45 from the drawer, ejecting the magazine and checking the rounds inside before slapping it back into the well. She pulled the slide back, the first round slipping into the chamber with a click.

Just let the sneaky bitch try and get the drop on her now.

Where was she anyway? She reached up her free hand to the earpiece, adjusting the volume slightly.

Something sharp dug into the side of her neck causing her to wince. "Let me guess. You figured that the big bad glowing wolf had come huffing and puffing to your door, and that you and your little piggies had to try to do me in?"

"You attacked first." Betty slowly lowered the pistol onto the desk, sliding it away from her hand.

"Actually I just told them I had to see you, and they decided to get trigger happy. I broke a few bones, knocked a couple out, but don't worry. I didn't kill any of your little piggies." The voice was a low whisper next to Betty's ear.

"And what does a criminal want with me?" Betty hissed as she spoke, not enjoying the position she was in, much less the woman she was dealing with.

The sharp point dug deeper into her neck, "I'd be careful, pirate woman. I'm the one with a talon on your neck. Now I'm not a violent woman by nature, I'm more the fun-loving teasing sort, but I could slip and have a very messy accident. Now can I let you go, sit down with you and have a civilized conversation, or do we need to keep going back and forth all day? Well, Patchy? What will it be?"

"Alright. We can talk." Betty sighed, her shoulders slumping. For the first time in her career she was agreeing to talk to a villain on their terms.

The talon slowly released its pressure from her neck, the pale woman stepping from out behind Betty, her hips wiggling as she slowly walked around the desk.

Betty's hand leaped to the pistol, her mind trusting that she was fast enough with her draw to end it quickly. She pointed the gun and started to squeeze the trigger, stopping as she realized that the end of the gun was now liquid metal. Metal that was dripping from a glowing green hand clenched around the end of the pistol.

Betty's could feel her cool exterior melting as for the first time in her life she felt completely and utterly screwed.

Shego let go of the pistol's molten barrel, shaking the cooling slag from her hand before extinguishing her glow completely. Calmly she lowered herself into the single chair that sat in front of the woman's desk. "Alright pirate lady, let's try this again from the beginning. I'm Shego, the pain in your, and almost everyone's, sides. But you already knew that. I know a little about you too. Betty Director, you lost your eye in a car accident that killed both of your parents, similarly injured your brother, and also took his hand. Unable to become a police officer you managed to work your way into the hearts and minds of the government and started Global Justice, which has flourished into the task force of the United States, doing all their dirty work, as well as handling the more extreme criminals in the world. Such as me."

Betty slowly lowered what remained of her pistol onto her desk, not noticing the smell of scorched wood as the hot metal charred the once pristine desktop. "Now that we have the introductions out of the way, what do you want from me?"

Shego crossed her legs, interlacing her fingers in her lap, "Now that I have your attention, I want to end this. All of it. No more warrants, no more hiding, no more manhunts. I'm done. I'm cashing in my chips and going home. All I want is enough left over to live on. You can keep everything else."

"And what makes you think that you have enough to buy off everyone in the world?" Betty could feel her confidence growing again as her position became stronger.

Shego leaned forward and grabbed a scrap of paper and a pen from the desk, scribbling a number on it before slipping the paper across the desk towards Betty, "It's a low-ball estimate, but that's pretty close to what I have in my rainy day fund."

Betty looked at the slip once, then twice. "But this is in the trillions! How can you have that much? How is it possible for anyone to have that much money?"

"I saved up, played the stock market a little, using my talent and skill to increase the worth of my stocks. Not to mention the money I've made keeping organizations like Global Justice off of people's backs, among other things. Girls like us can make a lot of money, if we're smart enough."

Betty stared at the slip of paper, swallowing slowly. It was a lot of money. Enough to easily help her with the budget problems that followed in the wake of Kim's death.

Her mind began to calculate odds, weighing scenarios to estimate the possibilities, as she had been doing all her life. She couldn't predict the future, but she could come pretty close to guessing it, and the future was looking bright indeed.

"What kind of house did you say you wanted?"

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Shego looked around her new home: a small apartment complete with dark green furniture and matching carpet. It wasn't much, but it was all she wanted. There was no need to have more than a home that she could call her own. She slumped onto her couch, thanking the powers above for the peace she now. The peace that she needed.

She had everything now….So why did it feel like everything important was still missing?

"So you're the one she's been watching." The voice was smooth, almost like velvet, with a slight hint of German in it.

Shego bolted up to see a young blonde man standing near the end of her coffee table, hands clasped behind his back. Her eyes quickly looked him over, judging his worth as a fighter. Thin build, dark slacks, a white shirt and a pretty-boy face. Her mind quickly wrote him off as just unusual, if not stupid for entering her home uninvited. She sat up, glaring darkly at him. "Who are you? And why are you in my house?"

"Ah, my name is Faust, and I am sorry to interrupt you. But you see, I've been trying to find someone. Someone who's been watching you for some time now. I believe you know her. Red hair, olive eyes, light complexion with a hint of freckles…"

She ground her teeth as she slid to her feet, "How do you know Kim? And why are you saying she's watching me? She died almost a year ago!"

"Kim. So that was her name. You're wrong. She is very much alive, well…in a manner of speaking that is."

Shego's hand was around the man's throat in an instant, her teeth bared as her talons pressed against his pale skin, "What did you say?"

"My, you are a curious creature. Such anger and hatred boiling inside of you, but with a slight hint of loss, like you want something but you don't understand what it is. What kind of beast are you exactly?" The man's face was calm, his eyes searching her face with curiosity.

Shego growled, showing her teeth as her face tightened with anger, her arm lifting and throwing the man. His body seemed to slow in the air, his back hitting the wall with a soft thump. Her hands ignited immediately, the heat rippling off of them as she lost all self control. Her forearms else burst into flame, the glow rippling up to the elbows as her eyes narrowed at him. "I am not an animal."

She lunged, her glowing talons raking through the air only to pass through where he had just been. She let out a cry of anger and attacked again, only to strike at thin air once more. She stopped, breathing heavily and with sweat running down her face. She rarely ever used her glow like this because of the strain it put on her.

"You are a strange one. I've never seen a demon or beast such as you in my five centuries on this planet. It actually saddens me that I've already chosen a bride, though..." He stopped and shook his head, "No, that won't do. I'll be watching you. She's bound to show up sooner or later." He made a slight bow and watched Shego slump over, the last of her strength fading away.

(Be careful about letting sentences trail on too long. If you have three or four or more commas in a sentence, it's a good bet that one of them is a good place to split that sentence into two. Generally, that will make the words flow more naturally)

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Shego bolted upright in a cold sweat, panting heavily.

What the fuck was that? Another dream?

She shook her head slowly trying to clear the cobwebs from her mind. She could remember a flash of blonde, but what had happened? Her pale body slid off the couch, bare feet leading her across the carpeted floor for only a foot before her legs gave out, dropping her on her face.

Everything started to blur together as she fought to stand.

Was this what death was like?

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"Shego. Come on Shego, wake up…"

Her eyes opened to a brightly lit room, and she quickly pulled her covers over her head. "Hego, this better be good."

"We've got a...problem."

Something told her that it wasn't the usual sort of problem that would just go away if she went to bed. "I swear to God, criminals need to start working banker hours." She sat up with the covers still over her head, not wanting to deal with the bright lights. With a large sigh she threw back the covers and slipped out of bed, to a loud protest from Hego.

"Can you _please_ start sleeping with some clothes on?" He looked away, staring at her bedroom door.

"Oh grow up, Hego. We've been over this. I get too hot to sleep with clothes on. I can barely use that blanket. So what's the problem now?"

Her brother mumbled something that she couldn't quite make out.

"Come again?" She grabbed a green and black cat suit from her closet and slipping it on, resolving to cut back on the cheesecake as she felt the tightness around her backside. The last thing see needed was a fat ass.

"It's Mantis. She's released a tape saying that she'll turn herself in…but only if you beat her…"

Shego froze as Hego spoke, the hairs on the back of her neck prickling. The boot she was holding fell to the floor. "Mantis?"

Hego nodded, "I know you two were, well, close before she switched sides, but I know you can beat her."

Shego slowly grabbed her boot and slipped it on, "You just better hope I don't kill her." Neither of them spoke as she finished getting ready, strapping a small pouch to her ankle. "So where is she?"

Hego spoke in a sigh, "Downtown, near the office district… Shego…?"

"Yeah?" She paused near the door, hand on the knob.

"Be careful."

"Doy," And with that she was gone.

It didn't take her long to find Mantis; the woman was standing in the open dressed in a bright green jumpsuit. Shego walked up, eying the woman's skin tight outfit. "A bit nipply out?"

"Just a titty bit."

"Breast we finish this quickly then," Shego smirked as she spoke, her body shifting lower as her hands ignited.

"Alright, but no motorboat noises this time." The other woman put her hands up, readying herself, the serrated blades on her forearms reflecting the lights from the streets below.

"You never did tell me why you split the hero biz…"

The other woman shrugged, "I chose to live for myself, and someone took it the wrong way. It seems everyone thinks in terms of straight good and evil. I'm not either though. I just want to be free."

"Being free means almost killing your girlfriend then?"

The other woman looked hurt by the statement, "I didn't mean for you to be there…I was just desperate to get away. I sent you flowers and a card to make up for it."

Shego frowned, "You never understood that I didn't want things. I'm not that kind of girl." She lunged as spoke, her glowing hand grazing the other woman's cheek.

"You're holding back."

"So are you."

They backed away from each other, side stepping in a slow circle. Shego spun low, her foot narrowly missing its chance to hook the other woman's leg. Mantis struck back, her foot connecting with the back of Shego's head. "Quit holding back, glow bug."

"Don't call me that." Shego lunged, wrapping her arms around the other's woman's middle, letting her glow extinguish as they collapsed on the roof.

"Reminds me of our first date." Mantis brought her arms down, the serrated blades running across Shego's back. She hissed in pain, her back arching as blood trickled from the wounds. Twin arms grabbed her shoulders and pulled her close, their lips meeting and locking together as passion overcame them both.

They rolled over, Shego hissing as the rough surface of the roof ground against her freshly wounded back, her talons raking across the other woman's shoulders. They stopped as a serrated blade pressed against Shego's throat. "I'm sorry sweetie. I…I can't do this anymore."

Mantis pulled away from Shego, tears running down her cheeks from beneath her emerald goggles. "I need to be free, and if I stay with you…I can't be. I'm sorry sweetie…but I can't have it both ways. Not with the lives we lead…."

Shego slowly climbed to her feet confused by the sudden rejection, "I could retire…we could escape all of this…" She held out her hand, slowly walking towards the other woman, "Come on Emily, please?"

The other woman slipped her hand into Shego's slowly, stepping closer, before twisting, her elbow colliding with the pale woman's stomach. Shego twisted, using her forehead against the other woman's, before slamming a glowing hand into the woman's midsection.

For a moment Shego could see the other woman smile before two arms wrapped around the pale woman pulling her close, her glowing fist burning into the other woman's torso, before being engulfed by it completely.

The air was filled with the smell of burning flesh as Mantis whispered gently into Shego's ear.

"Thank you…"

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Shego bolted up from where she was lying on the floor, one of her hands glowing. She silently extinguished it, sitting upright.

Emily…. An old wound inside reopened as the woman's face flashed through her mind. She'd killed the woman she loved. A woman that just wanted to be free of all the responsibilities that the world put on her shoulders. A woman who wanted to be free to be what she really was.

Her shoulders trembled as the pain seized her, clutching her chest and making it hard to breathe. Slowly, tears began to fall like rain onto the carpet below.

What kind of monster kills someone she loves?

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A/N: And thus I end another chapter with tormenting Shego. And the wheels turns as we get another step closer to the end of the story. But that won't be for a while still.

Next Chapter: Shego gets an unexpected letter, and pays another visit to Kim.


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